Ask Me about wednesday, september 2, 2020

Today we began our Benchmark Reading instruction, and our Eureka Math Instruction.  Our Benchmark Reading instruction begins with 12 days of learning routines and reviewing foundational skills.  Today we talked about what makes a strong listener.  We know strong listeners pay attention, look at the person who is talking, waits for the speaker to finish talking and sits still.  We also practiced following directions.  I gave the children some simple two and three step directions to follow which got them up and out of their chairs, too!  
We listened to a story called Katy's First Day of School.  We looked at parts of the cover of the book and discussed what the author and illustrator do, and how you can find the title.  We read the book and noticed the thinking bubbles above Katy's head that showed what she was thinking, not what had happened.  This book was a rhyming book, so we talked about rhyming words, then practiced making pairs of rhyming words from a word bank.
If we were in the classroom, we would often be doing a "turn and talk" where the children would turn to a partner so their knees were touching, and they would share ideas and thinking before sharing with the whole class.  I still want to establish this routine, so the children can have a study buddy they can turn and talk with during our lessons.  They can choose a stuffed animal or doll to use as their study buddy as long as the study buddy does not interfere with learning.  So the study buddy can be nearby, off-camera, but then be held when sharing ideas or thinking, or when listening to a story.  As with the break basket, the study buddy needs to be nearby and shouldn't be something the kids go away from the screen and search for during a lesson.
The big challenge in math today was getting used to three different books to use in math, and to find the page I needed them to use during the lesson.  Thank-you for helping your child be organized with the books in a place near the computer so they are ready to use during our lesson.  
We talked today about counting the math way by using our fingers.  In Eureka, the children count on their fingers starting with the pinkie on their left hand and putting each finger up as they say one number, stopping at their thumb with 5.  We used counters to put on a hand showing that same order.  We also talked about the same, and exactly the same.  

I hope your child has some time to create a structure or something they built out of Legos or other building material for our Lego Building Spirit Day!

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe